s a woman at all, will at once
make you feel that this must be so. I think, if I were
you, I would tell the whole to Mr. Amedroz; but this I
will leave to your own discretion. I can assure you that
Lady Aylmer has full proof as to the truth of what I tell
you.

I go up to London in February. I suppose I may hardly hope
to see you before the recess in July or August; but I
trust that before that we shall have fixed the day when
you will make me the happiest of men.

Yours, with truest affection,

F. F. AYLMER.

It was a disagreeable, nasty letter from the first line to the last.
There was not a word in it which did not grate against Clara's
feelings,--not a thought expressed which did not give rise to fears
as to her future happiness. But the information which it contained
about the Askertons,--"the communication," as Mrs. Askerton herself
would have called it,--made her for the moment almost forget Lady
Aylmer and her insolence. Could this story be true? And if true, how
far would it be imperative on her to take the hint, or rather obey
the order which had been given her? What steps should she take to
learn the truth? Then she remembered Mrs. Askerton's promise--"If you
want to ask any questions, and will ask them of me, I will answer
them." The communication, as to which Mrs. Askerton had prophesied,
had now been made;--but it had been made, not by Will Belton, whom
Mrs. Askerton had reviled, but by Captain Aylmer, whose praises Mrs.
Askerton had so loudly sung. As Clara thought of this, she could not
analyse her own feelings, which were not devoid of a certain triumph.
She had known that Belton would not put on his armour to attack a
woman. Captain Aylmer had done so, and she was hardly surprised at
his doing it. Yet Captain Aylmer was the man she loved! Captain
Aylmer was the man she had promised to marry. But, in truth, she
hardly knew which was the man she loved!

This letter came on a Sunday morning, and on that day she and Belton
went to church together. On the following morning early he was to
start for Taunton. At church they saw Mrs. Askerton, whose attendance
there was not very frequent. It seemed, indeed, as though she had
come with the express purpose of seeing Belton once during his visit.
As they left the church she bowed to him, and that was all they saw
of each other throughout the month that he remained in Somersetshire.

"Come to me to-morrow, Clara," Mrs. A